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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28591554">are you wearing eyeliner?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/penelopeinc/pseuds/penelopeinc'>penelopeinc</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Video Blogging RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, could be read as alex/will but not written romantically, george is mentioned very very briefly, toxic masculinity? let men wear makeup without questioning their sexuality 2021</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 05:34:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,410</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28591554</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/penelopeinc/pseuds/penelopeinc</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“it’s eyeliner,” the pencil disappeared from will’s hands, alex popping off the cap. rolling up the sleeve, he grasped will’s forearm and drew a small, dark line. with his thumb, he smudged it out slightly. giving him a knowing smile, he offered the pencil out for will to take.<br/>“you wanna try?”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>58</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>are you wearing eyeliner?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hii thank you for the support on the previous fic (you keep your socks on in bed)!! i finally made a new account so i can actually reply to comments :)</p><p>this fic wasn't written as will/alex or any other ship, but if you want to interpret it as that you can!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Comin’ in,” Will called out softly, pushing Alex’s door open with his knee - in his hands were two steaming bowls of pasta, him having already passed one to George. The filming for their video together had finally wrapped up, and Alex’s own was coming to an end too. </p><p> </p><p>The lights in Alex’s room were blindingly bright. There was a large, round mirror balanced precariously amongst a mess of different makeup products, all strewn across the desk. The video concept had taken him a few good hours to execute, the evening drawing in closer, but Will thought it was great. When Alex had pitched the idea to him, he’d been enthusiastic to see Alex fumble through a James Charles tutorial - he was possibly the least artistically inclined person Will knew, it would be endlessly entertaining to see.</p><p>Alex was leaning back in his chair, grimacing slightly. At the sight of Will, though, he grinned and stretched his arms out to graciously accept the food.</p><p> </p><p>“Let me just do my outro,”</p><p>Watching someone else do their outro was always sort of uncomfortable, but Will couldn’t focus fully on that. From a distance, Alex almost looked like a different person with the makeup he wore, a rusty red across his eyelids and thin, dark eyeliner. It’s strange, but not unwelcome.</p><p>Eventually, Alex turned off the camera, leaning further back in his chair. He turned to face Will now - who had slid into the seat beside him, peering closely at the man’s eyes. The coppery colour actually suited him really well, Will thought, and he couldn’t help but be slightly impressed. Alex had done way better than either of them had anticipated. Though normally pale and icy, his eyes seemed to be enhanced by the warm tones, appearing deeper and livelier.</p><p>“It looks good,” he hummed in approval, passing Alex a fork for his food, “You did a good job.”</p><p> </p><p>Through a toothy grin, Alex began to twirl the spaghetti on his fork. There was a silent beat as the two of them chewed down their food, before a chuckle escaped from Alex.</p><p>“My hands are too shaky for this shit,” he admitted, motioning to the array of makeup. Will shrugged. In all honesty, he thought that the other man had done a great job - certainly better than anything he could do. He barely just knew the names of all the different products, and even then, he wasn’t entirely sure he was right.</p><p>“I guess it’s just practice, innit,” He mumbled through a mouthful of pasta. Swallowing it down, Will picked up one of the small pencils Alex had strewn across the desk, curious. The text on the side was far too tiny for him to read, even straining his eyes. He was too scared to place a guess, instead opting for a simple-</p><p>“What even is this?”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s eyeliner,” The pencil disappeared from Will’s hands, Alex popping off the cap. Rolling up the sleeve, he grasped Will’s forearm and drew a small, dark line. With his thumb, he smudged it out slightly.</p><p>“Nearly poked my eye out putting it on,” He admitted, before peering up at Will through a curtain of dark, mascara-coated eyelashes. There was a glint in his eye as his gaze flickered between Will’s face and the pencil. Giving him a knowing smile, he offered the pencil out for Will to take.</p><p>“You wanna try?” The question lingered in the air for a moment before Will nodded. What harm could it do? Twisting in his seat so Alex can get a better angle, he pushed his chair closer until their knees knocked. It was probably better that he let someone else apply it for him, knowing Will he would end up blinding himself.</p><p> </p><p>“Half expected you to be all ‘that’s gay’,” Alex murmured through a breathy laugh, lips twisting into a small smirk. He carefully grasped Will’s chin, tilting his head.</p><p>“Oh, shut it,” Will scoffed.</p><p>“Close your eyes,” Whispers Alex as he brushes a hand delicately down Will’s face, pushing his eyelids down. Now, in the pitch blackness, all he could focus on was his rhythmic breathing and the scratchy pencil dabbing his eyelid. It itched, and he had the urge to blink and tear up, but he forced himself still. Alex was holding his breath, concentrating intently. The hand that had been ghosting along Will’s jaw moved up to brush his hair out of the way.</p><p>“It doesn’t look half-bad,” Alex notes as he worked. A gentle finger tapped away at Will’s eyelids, smudging the dark kohl out slightly. It felt heavy and waxy on his skin, a foreign but not unwelcome feeling. It wasn’t long before he heard Alex sit back in his chair.</p><p>“You wanna see?”</p><p> </p><p>Eyelashes feeling slightly glued together, he peeled his eyes open. It took a couple of blinks to adjust to the bright lights of the filming setup, and he fought back the urge to sneeze.  Leaning forward, he started to study his face in the mirror. </p><p>“Fuck, that’s weird,’ He announced, squinting at his reflection. It’s weird, the darkness around his eyes made them look even brighter blue - the bright lights exaggerated it even more. It looks good, he admitted. Weird, but good.</p><p>“I kind of like it?” There was an unsure lilt in his voice. It was too foreign to him to figure out how he really felt about it. His gaze flickered over to meet Alex’s, unsure; the man nodded and let out a gentle laugh.</p><p>“It suits you.”</p><p>As he chewed down another bite of his pasta, Alex pressed the pencil into Will’s hands, grinning knowingly. </p><p>“Keep it, I’m not gonna use it again.” He hummed, before pressing a second product into his hands;</p><p>“You can have this too, I guess,” Will unfurled his hand to reveal a small eyeshadow compact. There are maybe six or eight shades, various tones of red and pink, sparkling beneath the harsh light.</p><p> </p><p>He tried it again over the next couple of weeks, days when there was no filming or socialising to be done. Just about poked his eye out in the process too, the combination of a scratchy pencil and jittery hands proving to not be a good one. He tried out the eyeshadow too, now and again, crudely patting the glittery shades across his eyelids. Over time, it gets easier to apply the makeup without poking himself in the eye, something Will counts as a success. It was kind of fun, he decided, being all shimmery and pretty. How come guys couldn’t do this more? </p><p> </p><p>“Are you wearing makeup?” James asked one day, squinting at Will curiously. The video they were filming was for his second channel, looking through a subreddit of awful makeup. It wasn’t really makeup, more the remnants of the dark eyeliner he’d put on the night before. The rusty red shade had stained his eyelids, leaving traces of glitter that shimmered if he caught the light just right, but he figured the camera wasn’t close enough to see. If anything, he just looked a bit sickly - in a good way, somehow.  He’d been rubbing at his eyes all day - he liked the eyeliner, he really did, but he wasn’t sure what his audience would think if he blatantly wore it. </p><p>“Yeah,” he said nonchalantly, figuring James wouldn’t really care that much. A smirk quirked one side of his lips up, inviting the other man to peer closer, “Makes my eyes look good,”</p><p> </p><p><em> I gotta remember to cut this</em>, he thought, as he leaned back in his seat. </p><p>“You didn’t strike me as the type.” Leaning in to take a better look, James hummed in approval. His gaze flickered across Will’s face, analysing the flecks of glitter and leftover eyeliner. The look completely contrasts what Will tends to go for otherwise, unoffensive colours and soft edges. </p><p>“It looks good, should’ve worn it for the video,” </p><p>“Nah, mate,”  Bitterly, Will scoffed as James fell back in his chair. Wearily, he rubbed at his eyes and blinked at the uncomfortable pressure. The makeup was probably smudged everywhere now, leaving him with racoon eyes and heavy bags. </p><p>“I would get absolutely destroyed,” Alex’s audiences would have received it well, maybe James’ too, but he doubted how kindly his own would take it. The wildest fashion choices he tended to make, aside from the ridiculous costumes, were beanies, sometimes, if his hair had gotten embarrassingly long.</p><p>“Fuck that, it looks great.”</p><p> </p>
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